Great post, Eliezer. I’ve seen all of this before, but never all in one place, and not explained so clearly.
I was going to write a long story about how I became interested in math, but it would take too much time, and I doubt many people would care. So, I’ll abbreviate it: Number Munchers → “How can I solve an algebra problem in which there are “x”s on both sides of the equals sign?” → An obsession with pi (I had over 500 decimal places memorized at one point.) → Learning some easier calculus for fun in 9th grade → An obsession with prime numbers → Metamath , and then there were many things after that, too, but interacting with the idea of formal proof verification using a computer is what forced me into much greater mathematical maturity.
Great post, Eliezer. I’ve seen all of this before, but never all in one place, and not explained so clearly.
I was going to write a long story about how I became interested in math, but it would take too much time, and I doubt many people would care. So, I’ll abbreviate it: Number Munchers → “How can I solve an algebra problem in which there are “x”s on both sides of the equals sign?” → An obsession with pi (I had over 500 decimal places memorized at one point.) → Learning some easier calculus for fun in 9th grade → An obsession with prime numbers → Metamath , and then there were many things after that, too, but interacting with the idea of formal proof verification using a computer is what forced me into much greater mathematical maturity.
Edit: Formatting issues, sorry.